The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Lincolnshire Co-op wants its Holbeach store to also be home to the Post Office, library and a pharmacy.
Under £750,000 plans submitted to South Holland District Council, the Fleet Street site, which was acquired from Budgens this year, would be turned into two units – one for the food store, another for the Post Office, pharmacy and library.
A new pull-in parking area would be created by demolishing a corner of the existing building and creating shop fronts for the Post Office and pharmacy further back. This would be in addition to the store’s existing large car park at the rear of the outlet.
Co-op already runs Holbeach Post Office and Holbeach Pharmacy, both in High Street. These would relocate to the new site.
Store development manager Matthew Wilkinson said: “We want to make best use of the site we have.
“We believe bringing this range of facilities together in one location will be more convenient for people in Holbeach. It will also help sustain community services like the library and the post office, which we know are important to many.”
Some of the 40 volunteers now running Holbeach Library.
Holbeach Library reopened in Church Street on Monday, being run by a bank of 40 volunteers four days a week.
If planning permission is granted for the Co-op’s new facility, the library would move once the building was completed, which could be in mid-2016. It would feature facilities including a stock of around 4,000 books, People Network computers, a self-service machine and a telephone line to the county council’s helpline advisors.
Lincolnshire Co-op already runs a library in Waddington near Lincoln based on a similar model. The library shares space with its pharmacy and is open throughout the outlet’s hours of trading.
A team of volunteers man the library at various times during the week and outside of those times, pharmacy staff can help library users.
Town county councillor and executive member for libraries Nick Worth welcomed the Co-op’s proposal.
“It’s got to be good news to have all those services in the same area with the car parking and bus stop there,” he said. “And with the help of self-service machines the library will be open seven days a week.”
